Various devices have been designed for the storage and transportation of film reels and reels of magnetic tape. Early devices for the transport of film reels such as the film reel carrying case disclosed by Goldberg in U.S. Pat. No. 2,558,839 allow the multiple stacking of film reels side-by-side in a carrying case. Modern attempts at providing transport cases for magnetic computer or video tape are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,454,153 to Jensen; 3,417,894 to Gittler; 3,169,682to Hollingsworth; and 4,407,412 to Thiele et al. Typically, these cases are made from molded plastics and are primarily designed for transporting magnetic tape.
None of the described carrying cases, however, are ideally suited to provide safe transit for one inch magnetic video tape reels and library storage for such reels in a single device. For example, in a typical reel container disclosed by Rubins in U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,499 a central locking knob is selectively rotatable to three different positions to lock the reel within the box. A similar central locking knob is disclosed by Jensen. While this type of locking device is suitable for transit of video tape reels, it is inconvenient for ordinary every day use where the reel container is stored on a bookshelf in a commercial video tape library. Alternate methods for closing the reel case as disclosed by Hollingsworth and Gittler require complete separation of the upper and lower halves to access the stored reel. This method, while suitable for reels in transport is more burdensome than the central locking knob for routinely accessing reels contained in the case in a library.
Thus, a need exists for a video tape storage box which has the high security features of the previously discussed devices while providing quick access to stored reels to facilitate access to the reels in a commercial video tape library.